Rouhani to hold key talks with leaders of Caspian Sea states

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to hold a number of meetings with leaders of the five Caspian Sea littoral countries during his upcoming visit to the Kazakh city of Aktau where the Caspian Sea summit will be held.

Rouhani's deputy chief of staff for communications and information Parviz Esmaili said on Wednesday that the Iranian president will leave Tehran for Aktau on August 11, Tasnim news agency reported on August 8.

He added that the president will attend the Caspian summit, sign the meeting’s joint statement and also several other “important and strategic documents” on cooperation among the five Caspian states during his two-day visit.

President Rouhani will sit down with his Kazakh counterpart and other members of the Caspian Sea on the sidelines of the summit, Esmaili said.

The first meeting of the Caspian states’ leaders was held in Ashgabat in 2002, and the other summits were convened in Tehran, Baku and Astrakhan.

The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world and accounts for 40 to 44 percent of the total lacustrine waters of the world. The coastlines of the Caspian are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan.